Outsourcing is a major trend in the Information Technology (IT) industry. In some outsourced engagements, the outsourcer deploys outsourcer-owned devices at different geographical locations of the customer. A customer may outsource its printing services, for example, by engaging an outsourcer to deploy its printers at the customer's facilities. The outsourcer in this arrangement will typically own the printers and be responsible for their maintenance. The outsourcer will then typically charge the customer a flat rate and/or a cost per printed page. Such an outsourcing arrangement benefits customers by providing use of the equipment without having to purchase expensive capital assets or having to maintain such assets, while the outsourcer benefits by having a relatively stable source of income from its outsourcing services. Outsourcing arrangements are likely to increase as more and more companies or other organizations desire to reduce their investment in capital equipment or other assets.
Organizations track assets in order to provide records for depreciation or other financial record needs. In order to track their assets, outsourcing organizations typically assign asset numbers to particular pieces of equipment to facilitate tracking and audits by the outsourcer's business control organization. The asset number is often independent from the serial number for the equipment and is instead used for internal controls. One common solution to implement asset numbers for a large group of assets is to use physical asset tags. In this implementation, the asset number is printed on a sticker or label and attached directly to the asset. This allows outsourcer personnel to walk up to the asset and quickly read the asset number from the asset tag.
Physical asset tags, however, are plagued by a number of problems. First, physical asset tags must be physically applied to the assets, requiring significant costs in labor and time. Outsourcers often, for example, physically apply the asset tag at a consolidation center prior to delivery to a customer or at the customer facility itself. Applying the asset tag at a consolidation center results in additional incurred costs and delays for transportation to the consolidation center as well as the costs of unpacking and repacking the asset in order to attach the asset tag. Physical asset tags also require auditors from the outsourcing organization's business controls group to physically view the assets at the customer facility, requiring the costs and delays of transportation to the customer facilities (which may be worldwide) as well as a possible distraction or inconvenience for the customer. Another potential problem with physical asset tags is that errors which result in a mismatch of the physical asset tag and the device manufacturer's serial number require manual labor to reconcile. Such errors occur when the serial number changes as hardware is replaced for repair, resulting in the mismatch of the physical asset tag and serial number. Yet another problem is the possibility of a transcription error when an auditor or other person records the value of an asset number.
Another solution for outsourcers is to utilize Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) asset tags. RFID asset tags contain a small transponder that remains in a sleep state until activated by a signal from an activator, after which the RFID asset tag emits a radio signal containing the asset number of the device with the RFID asset tag. The activator receives the radio signal and asset number and then forwards the information to another computer system. An employee of the outsourcer may thus walk around a customer facility to gather RFID asset tag information, eliminating the need to transcribe a physical asset tag and saving time. RFID asset tags, while powerful, retain the disadvantages of the physical asset tags, as they require physical attachment to the asset device and require an auditor to be in physical proximity to the asset device in order to receive the RFID asset tag transmission.
There is, therefore, a need for an effective and efficient system to manage asset devices. There is an even greater need for such a system when the asset devices are geographically distributed over a large area.